Digitally China

DigitallyChina
Digitally China

A podcast about the Chinese tech industry by Tom Xiong, Eva Xiao and Jacob Loven. Created together with RADII (radiichina.com), an independent media platform about today's China and its next generation. Digitally China is a bi-weekly podcast where we together with experts discuss the fascinating stories from the Chinese tech industry from a Chinese and global perspective. New trends and technology will change our world - Digitally China wants to deliver a fresh perspective on how tech will impact both our today and tomorrow. Digitally China is co-hosted by Tom Xiong (founder of the startup Move Shanghai in China), Eva Xiao (an established China-based reporter) and Jacob Lovén (10+ years experience of successful Internet companies). All the music in the episodes is licensed.

  1. From 8 to 800 million internet users - An Inside View with Brian Wong

    09/26/2019

    From 8 to 800 million internet users - An Inside View with Brian Wong

    This episode of Digitally China is about Brian Wong, his experiences from being part of the early days of Alibaba but at the same time also a story about how it was to first-hand be part of how China grew from almost nothing to the largest internet market in the world.    The location is a hotel in San Francisco, the year is 1999. The internet hype is in its peak. United States at this moment have over 100 million internet users, 10 times more than the much larger country in the East, China. While his friends are leaving school to join the company that seems to be the next big thing, Google, Brian is instead meeting a fairly unknown entrepreneur at that time with the first name Jack who enthusiastically is talking about his company, Alibaba.   As many of his friends on the west coast of the US, he believes that technology will change the world. But instead of staying in his hometown and the Middle Kingdom of innovation, Palo Alto, he moves to Hangzhou to work with e-commerce in country that barely have internet users.   In this episode we’re listening in on Brian’s story, reflecting on the learnings from the growth of the Chinese technology sector, what we can learn from it and how it will impact the rest of the world. Guests: · Brian Wong, VP at Alibaba Hosts: Tom Xiong & Eva Xiao Producer: Jacob Lovén & Katarina Andersson Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

    43 min
  2. The War of a Thousand Groupons

    09/16/2019

    The War of a Thousand Groupons

    In the latest Digitally China we’re looking back on history. Meituan-Dianping is China’s clear market leader within group buying, offline discovery and online-offline services today. But it wasn’t that clear a few years back. In fact, the opposite was true, with the American giant Groupon entering China backed by a powerful partner in Tencent. In a hyper-competitive environment, there were suddenly thousands of group-buying services all fighting for the position that Meituan has today. For a sense of what that time was like, we interviewed Tim He, who was a senior executive of Gaopeng, the Chinese subsidiary of Groupon when they entered the market. Tim, who took a break from Harvard to go back to China to take on the daunting task of trying to win in such an enormous, sprawling market, takes us through some of the incredible stories from that exciting period. As a seasoned investor at one of Europe’s most renowned venture firms, Kinnevik, Tim also reflects on learnings from the Chinese technology sector as well as the success factors behind today's “super apps” of China. Topics covered in this episode How Groupon entered the Chinese market The group-buying industry How to operate in a market with thousands of competitors What lessons can you learn from China that are applicable for Western markets? The success factors behind super app companies such as Meituan-Dianping, Alipay and more Guests: · Tim He, investor at Kinnevik and previous senior executive of Gaopeng, the Chinese Groupon. Host: Tom Xiong Producer: Jacob Lovén & Katarina Andersson Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered "Fair Use". Digitally China Is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

    45 min
  3. RED: The ups and downs of social commerce

    08/16/2019

    RED: The ups and downs of social commerce

    Companies around the world are latching onto social commerce, but in China, where mobile payments are ubiquitous and consumers are extra wary of fake goods, the integration between social media and online shopping has been especially fast.   That doesn’t mean it’s a silver bullet for brands though -- or even the multi-billion dollar internet celebrity industry, where influencers are tasked with advertising products without appearing too commercial. In this episode of Digitally China, we’ll discuss Xiaohongshu or RED, which is often compared to Instagram and Pinterest.   The fast-growing app, which is popular among young, female urbanites in China, has over 85 million monthly active users and is valued at $3 billion following a $300 million funding round last year led by e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba. But the e-commerce side of RED is still behind more price-conscious competitors like Pinduoduo — and the app hit its latest roadblock earlier this week, when it was pulled from Chinese app stores. We’ll cover some of the challenges the app is facing as it tries to grow its e-commerce business – monetizing its vibrant user community -- and manage the thousands of influencers on its platform.   Episode summary: · Xiaohongshu backstory and introduction · Xiaohongshu vs. competitors · Xiaohongshu’s content quality problem · Success cases of brands working with influencers · Cosmetics: an industry where Chinese brands have really optimized social media and ecommerce Guests: · Elijah Whaley, chief marketing officer at Parklu, an influencer marketing tech firm in China · Huo Qiu, a fashion and cosmetics influencer with over 1 million followers on Weibo and about 30,000 followers on Xiaohongshu Hosts: Eva Xiao and Tom Xiong Producer: Jacob Lovén Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

    30 min
  4. Can TikTok Beat Spotify and Apple Music?

    08/16/2019

    Can TikTok Beat Spotify and Apple Music?

    Together with Jonas Leijonhufvud and Sven Carlsson, the authors of a new book telling the inside story about Spotify and the fight for global dominance in music streaming we are discussing if ByteDance actually have a shot at beating the giants. ByteDance, the company behind the huge International success TikTok, or Douyin as its called in China is really on the offense. Fueled by the position as the 3rd most downloaded app in the world 2018 and a valuation of 75 billion dollars, ByteDance have recently both announced plans to enter messaging to directly compete with Tencent and Facebook as well as launching a smartphone.   And now, reported first by Bloomberg ByteDance seem to have far advanced plans on getting into music streaming to compete with Spotify, Tencent Music and Apple Music. Already positioned among hundreds of millions of teens around the world with a short video and music app - this actually doesn’t seem that crazy.   In this episode of Digitally China we are discussing: TikTok’s current position on the market The challenges of monetizing through music streaming, learnt from Spotify and Apple Music How music streaming companies work with record labels and how that would impact TikTok’s ambitions The validity of TikTok’s presumed music streaming service and how their position among teenagers around the world could support that   Host: Tom Xiong Producer: Jacob Lovén Guests: Jonas Leijonhufvud and Sven Carlsson, reporters at Dagens Industri and authors of the book Spotify Untold Digitally China is a subjective but independent depiction of the tech scene in China. Audio clips used in the podcast have not been distorted nor taken out of context and are included for commentary and educational purposes and thus shall be considered “Fair Use”. Digitally China is powered by RADII (www.radiichina.com), an independent media platform exploring China from all angles.

    35 min
4.7
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

A podcast about the Chinese tech industry by Tom Xiong, Eva Xiao and Jacob Loven. Created together with RADII (radiichina.com), an independent media platform about today's China and its next generation. Digitally China is a bi-weekly podcast where we together with experts discuss the fascinating stories from the Chinese tech industry from a Chinese and global perspective. New trends and technology will change our world - Digitally China wants to deliver a fresh perspective on how tech will impact both our today and tomorrow. Digitally China is co-hosted by Tom Xiong (founder of the startup Move Shanghai in China), Eva Xiao (an established China-based reporter) and Jacob Lovén (10+ years experience of successful Internet companies). All the music in the episodes is licensed.

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